Prinze George Move Beyond 'Illiterate Synth Pop' On Debut Album

Audio: Inside Track With Prinze George

Lots of bands never get the chance to make a debut album and find a signature sound. Prinze George did reach that milestone, but what followed nearly drove them crazy.

The New York trio finished recording its first full-length in November of last year. They’d spent six months fine-tuning the record. When they handed it over to their label, the members learned that they would have to wait until the next year to release it.

Singer Naomi Almquist says they were eager to hit the road and bring their songs to new listeners, but all they could do was wait around.

"You can't even really be proud of the thing you've made 'cause nothing's really happening." Almquist says. "Already making the record is intense, then you get in this post-production intensity of nothing."

The new year arrived, but the band still had no idea when the album would come out. And the wait wasn’t easy. They had to move out of their New York apartment because of a bedbug infestation, and move back in with their parents.

All while waiting to show their music to the world, for what felt like an eternity.

The album finally came out this summer. It’s called “Illiterate Synth Pop.” Almquist says the title pokes fun at a three-word online review of an early Prinze George single.

The writer described them as “illiterate” due to the misspelling of "prince." But Almquist says what really bugged them was the term “synth pop.”

"That doesn’t cover the scope of what we do. If you’re including synths at all in the production or instrumentation nowadays, you’re automatically lumped into the category of synth pop. You might listen to 50 bands and they all use synths, but everybody’s doing something different."

And, after a bit more time than they had anticipated, Prinze George is eager to show what makes their synth band different from the last 50 you've heard.